


Rescues and Rakshasas

by angelofbenignmalevolence



Series: IR Relief 2020-2021 Ficlets [4]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Dungeons and Dragons, Fluff, Game Night, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:21:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24891514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelofbenignmalevolence/pseuds/angelofbenignmalevolence
Summary: A massive storm has grounded the Thunderbirds and the boys are bored. When the power goes out, Alan decides to bring his family together for a rousing game night featuring Dungeons and Dragons!
Series: IR Relief 2020-2021 Ficlets [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1759282
Comments: 6
Kudos: 11





	1. Part One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TsarinaTorment](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TsarinaTorment/gifts).



> “Any younger brother teaching Scott something he doesn’t know” submitted as a prompt by @tsarinatorment for International Rescue & Relief (https://nutty.gumnut.net/irrelief/). If the reception to this is good and I continue, there may also be a hint of "Here be Dragons" as a prompt as well. Hope that a two for one is acceptable!! :D 
> 
> In Dungeons and Dragons, a Rakshasa is a monster that the players can face. According to the Monster Wiki (https://monster.fandom.com/wiki/Rakshasa_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons), "Rakshasa are malevolent magical creatures that appear in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. They are loosely inspired by the Rakshasa of Hindu legend and were one of the earliest monsters to be introduced to the game." I mainly chose that particular monster for the alliteration, but I may throw one in later if people want me to continue with it.

This was not your average storm. This storm had been building in power for days and it was one of the very few times that International Rescue had been grounded due to hazardous weather conditions. If they couldn’t safely get the birds in the air, they couldn’t rescue anyone. Even John had come down from Thunderbird 5. If anything went wrong up there while the storm was passing over them, there would be no way to get in contact with Five, and after Scott had heard that communications had been wiped out in the areas that had already been in the storm’s wake, there had been no room for discussion.

This explained why the five Tracy brothers, Grandma Tracy, Brains, Kayo and Max were currently hunkered down in the bunker built under the island for just such occasions. John sat at the table, twisting a hologram of the Earth as he continued to monitor the path of the storm. As soon as it was safe to fly again, there was a very good chance that International Rescue would have their work cut out for them. Virgil sat in front of an easel in the corner, working on his latest masterpiece as he hummed softly to himself. These quiet moments of interlude were often the only opportunities he had to work on his art, and he made sure to take full advantage of them. Brains and Scott spoke in hushed tones about new research and development ideas moving forward. Kayo watched the room silently, her security instincts always on high alert. The Hood had gotten to Tracy Island once. She wouldn’t put it past him to try again under the cover of the big storm. Gordon and Alan sat at the table with Grandma Tracy, a deck of cards between them all.

“Read ‘em and weep boys,” Grandma said, laying out her cards on the table, eliciting groans from the two youngest of the Tracy brothers.

“That’s six games in a row!” Gordon groaned as Grandma Tracy moved the pile of chocolate candies they had been using as the betting pot over to her side of the table.

“What can I say?” she said with a smile as she began to shuffle the cards again. “Your grandfather used to be quite the card shark in his day and I learned to play cards with the best of them. Another round?” Alan pushed away from the table.

“I’m out, Grandma,” he said, moving over to one of the open couches and flopping back on the cushions. His eyes traced the lines on the ceiling. While he was always grateful for a brief respite of constant call outs, Alan was very easily bored. There were only so many card games, so much homework, and so much time sitting around waiting for something to do that he could handle. The storm had knocked out all server connections to his online game, so he didn’t even have his normal escape from boredom. He let out a sigh. _Man, this blows. I wish there was something that we could all do together._

The room went dark. The sudden lack of humming from the lights and the quieting of the whir of Tracy Island’s innards was nearly deafening for a few brief moments. The only thing they could hear in the darkness was the distant whoosh of the storm that was currently buffeting the Island.

“What just happened?” Scott asked. Alan heard him getting to his feet in the inky darkness of the room.

“Looks like the power went out,” came Gordon’s voice, the ever-present mischief in his voice not dulled at all by the occurrence. Alan smiled as he swore he could almost hear Scott glaring into the darkness.

“ _Obviously_ ,” Scott replied.

“The back-up generators should k-k-kick on anytime,” came Brains’ voice, followed by Max whirring as he moved across the floor to where Brains sat, unimpeded by the darkness. Kayo shifted uncomfortably as the several seconds it should have taken for the generator to kick on again stretched into a minute, and then more.

“The generator should have kicked on by now,” she said, all her security instincts on alert.

“It has been awhile since we’ve done a test on the generators down here. It’s p-possible that the redundant generator could have been knocked out as well,” Brains reasoned. The bunker was used so infrequently that the maintenance on the Thunderbirds often superseded the six-month checks on the equipment down on the bunker. And once it had been delayed, it was often forgotten in the hum and excitement of the near constant rescues.

“Maybe I should go check it out, just in case,” Kayo said, and there was the sound of her getting up off the wall. The sound of a chair scraping against the floor indicated that either Gordon or Grandma Tracy had gotten to their feet as well

“Are you crazy?” Gordon’s voice hadn’t moved, meaning the slow footsteps across the room belonged to their grandmother, which was confirmed with a soft _oof_ and a couple muttered words. “It’s pitch black out there. And we don’t know about comms with all of our systems down.” There was the sound of a cupboard opening and some rustling.

“All the more reason for me to check and see why our power is down. If it’s a matter of the storm and there’s something that’s preventing the generator from working, we should know that,” she said. She didn’t voice her concerns that the Hood had infiltrated the Island again. A soft _aha_ preceded a flash of light from the kitchen area as Grandma pulled out a battery powered LED lantern. After the momentary blindness from the suddenness of the light, the whole room was bathed in the muted blueish glow of the lantern. Grandma set it on the small counter and ducked into the cupboard again.

“I know we have a couple of these to spare,” she said. “I can send one along with you, Kayo,” she said, rifling through the cupboard.

“M-M-Max can go with you too. If it is a mechanical failure, he has been uploaded with the schematics of everything and can help you fix the problem,” Brains offered. Kayo nodded to him.

“Thank you, Brains,” she said. Grandma brought over another lantern to her and Kayo turned it on, moving to the door. “C’mon Max.” The little robot whirred happily at being given something to do and rolled away after Kayo. The _clunk_ of the door echoed softly for a moment before the room was bathed in silence momentarily.

“Well,” Virgil said, getting up from where he was sitting in front of his easel. “I guess that’s me being done with painting for the time being. I have to let the layer dry anyway.” He plopped down on the couch next to Alan, moving his brother’s feet to make room for him.

“Yeah, I think that’s most of us being done for the time being,” Gordon lamented as he came over to join the rest of the family. “Not a whole lot to be done in the dark. Except, you know, ghost stories or whatever.” No one else seemed as enthused as Gordon about the idea of ghost stories, but the idea sent Alan’s mind churning. _Maybe not ghost stories but…_

Alan sat up, Virgil looking at him as Alan’s limbs flailed into a seated position on the couch. _That’s a brilliant idea!_ Alan thought to himself. _All I have to do is convince them it’s a good idea too._

“Everything ok, Al?” Virgil asked.

“What? Oh, yeah, everything’s fine,” Alan said. “I was just thinking…there is something that we can do while it’s dark and it would give everyone something to do.”

“Oh?” Gordon’s curiosity had been piqued.

“I’m listening,” Virgil said. Alan hesitated for a moment.

“Well, I was trolling the forums for _Cavern Quest_ the other week and some of the older players were talking about an old school tabletop roleplaying game called _Dungeons and Dragons_ and I was looking into it and it sounded really cool. It’s where you have this dungeon master and they start a story and the players are all a part of it and based on the decisions you make, the story changes and…” Alan started, his words almost blending together in excitement but as his brothers continued to stare at him, he began to trail off. Gordon’s face was the first to break into a smile.

“That sounds amazing! Count me in,” he said.

“Sure, I’m game,” Virgil was next to chime in after a short pause. “It’s better than sitting here in the half-light.” Alan’s eyes lit up. That was two of his brothers.

“Oh, why not.” Alan turned, a little surprised to hear his grandmother agreeing. “I played once or twice when I was in college. Don’t remember much of it but I’ll play. Brains will too.”

“I w-will?” he asked, but Grandma was already ushering him over to the table. Alan’s face broke out into a grin. He had expected to maybe get all of his brothers on board, but this…this was even better! He turned to his other two brothers. He turned puppy dog eyes on John, who sighed.

“If you can convince Scott to play, I’ll join in,” he said. Scott had little time to brace himself for the full force of Alan’s hopeful expression.

“Please, Scott? Pleeeeeeeeease??” Alan asked. Scott internally winced at how hopeful he sounded and how devastated he knew his brother would be if he didn’t agree.

“Al…I don’t know how to play...” Scott tried to sidestep the decision. His brothers were always the more creative ones, whether it was Virgil with his art, Gordon with his pranks, John with his inventions, or Alan, who had a five page backstory written up for his character on _Cavern Quest_. Scott was much more logic minded, rooted in numbers and systems. Alan was undeterred.

“I’ll teach you, Scott. It doesn’t take that long to get the hang of it. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease?” Alan asked again and Scott felt his resolve crumble.

“Alright, I’ll play,” he said and Scott was almost surprised that Alan didn’t launch himself into orbit with the excitement that exuded from him. He took Scott’s hand and dragged him over to the table, mirth in John’s eyes as he followed a bit more sedately. Alan bounced over to where Grandma had stocked a small cabinet full of games and dug around for some dice sets he knew were in the back behind all the boxes. He brought them over to the table and passed them around to everyone.”

“Ok…so first…let’s roll up characters!”


	2. Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dungeons and dragons crew get their start with character creation. Kayo and MAX start on their own quest for the generator.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the delay in this chapter! Real life caught up with me and I had to do a little reworking and restructuring of the plot to fit in a couple more elements coming down the road. Hopefully it should be a little smoother sailing from here. I'm afraid there's not too much action in this chapter but the set up was necessary, I promise!! Hope you enjoy!

“And…that should do it for character creation,” Alan said as he helped Scott with the last of the notations on his character sheet. Scott had looked to Alan for a lot of help in creating his character, and Alan had pointed him in the direction of a Paladin. Strong, certain, and unwavering in their faith, it had seemed a perfect fit for his eldest brother and Scott had agreed that he could play a character like that. Gordon had made an offhanded comment that it wasn’t too far off the beaten path for Scott, and his brother’s look had only caused Gordon to bury himself in his own character sheet with a grin. 

Gordon’s only difficulty had been in what class he was going to play. He had waffled between a bard and a rogue, and in the end had chosen to split his levels between the two. A mischievous trickster and performer, Alan could not have thought of a better mix of classes for his partner in crime Gordon had been tickled pink by the thought of being able to be both the distraction and the sneakiest of sneaky. He decided that his half-elf bard was a ladies man of sorts and that if the purses of his conquests were a little lighter after all was said and done…well…who could blame a guy? Alan was just happy to see that Gordon was throwing his whole heart into it.

Virgil had decided that if their normal life was anything to go by, this team would need a medic. As the one best equipped for first aid in the field for International Rescue, a cleric had seemed an obvious choice. In solidarity with Scott, he had chosen to be human as well and the two of them had chosen the same deity to work with. Virgil had sensed that the parallelism in his own character had helped Scott feel more comfortable playing and Virgil had been more than happy to give his brother the reassurance that he wasn’t getting thrown into the deep end alone. They’d figure it out together, as they always had.

It hadn’t surprised Alan one bit that John had picked a sorcerer. Intelligence and charisma had always been his strong suit. It was why he was so good at his job as communications specialist. John had spent a little time in the books that Alan had pulled out, reading up on the classes and figuring out what species he should be that would make success that much more achievable. In the end, his elvish sorcerer had ended up with a pretty lethal spell load and was designed to be ruthlessly efficient.

Grandma had helped Brains find a class for him, and the artificer had been the perfect fit. The inventor and engineer of the medieval fantasy world, Brains had taken quite a shine to the class and was actually quite proud of the little character he had created. He had been overjoyed to find a way to create a Max that could join him in the game, and much like Scott, the feeling of not being alone in his struggles was reassuring to him. In fact, he almost looked like he was the most eager to get started.

Grandma…well…Grandma had surprised them all when she revealed her character sheet to the rest of the family.

“A barbarian?” Scott asked. He had trouble seeing his grandmother as a hulking ox of a character whose tactical choices were _smash_ or _rage_. Grandma had always been a force of nature, but she had always applied her force tactfully and with an element of grace. She smiled at Scott.

“Sometimes it’s a little more fun to play against type,” she said. Scott’s brow furrowed at the thought as Alan sat down at the head of the table, his head barely poking up over the screen he had set up in front of him. He settled excitedly.

“Alright, enough chatter, ok? Let’s get this underway before we get called out.” All eyes at the table turned to look at him and Alan felt excitement run like fire through his veins. The low light from the lantern only served to heighten the atmosphere. John smiled and nodded to Alan.

“Take us away, dungeon master,” John said. Alan’s eyes glittered and he cleared his throat.

“The tale begins with our band of adventurers being called in by the alderman of a local town. He wants to hire you to save the lord of the manor. The castle had been under siege and been overtaken by a rowdy group of bandits…”

* * *

Kayo followed MAX down the hall as the robot held the lantern aloft. Now that she was out of the hum of the others, the sound of the storm was a distant roar. She sighed. It looked like they may be stuck here for a while. MAX whirred softly as he came to a fork in the tunnels, his camera turning to look at Kayo, as if to make sure she was following him.

“I’m right behind you, MAX,” she assured him. She wondered, not for the first time, exactly how human MAX was in his programming. The little robot obviously had a personality, but the thought occurred to her that his check on her was less for her benefit than his own. She shook her head with a slight smile to herself. She couldn’t get wrapped up in such things right now. Her focus had to be on the task at hand. She looked at the signs on the wall at the fork and considered them for a moment.

“Generator room 1 on the left. Generator 2 on the right,” she said. “I don’t suppose you might have an inkling on which one might be easier to get back up, hmm?” MAX whirred and lifted his robotic arms in a shrug, the light from the lantern swinging along the corridors and casting long shadows. Kayo sighed. “Well, I suppose that starting in generator room one can’t hurt. C’mon, MAX. I think we’re better off sticking together.”

MAX set off down the path Kayo indicated. They were nearly halfway down the hall when she heard something ahead. She laid a hand on MAX’s back to still him. The mechanical whir of his movements silenced almost instantly. There was no noise in the darkness ahead and, for a brief moment she thought she imagined the sound. But there it was again.

The rattle of a vent cover. She moved ahead of MAX, motioning him to remain behind her. She inched up along the wall. She slowed her breath. There was no way that anyone was going get to Tracy Island again. Not after the last time.

The sound grew louder. Her movements grew slower and more deliberate. She made no noise as she shuffled forward. She was mere feet from the source of the noise. Just around the corner…

She hesitated for only a moment before jumping around the corner, flicking on her suit light, hoping to catch the culprit by surprise. What she found had her caught between annoyance and laughing out loud in relief. It was a panel, much too small for a human to fit through, that had come loose with the force of the winds in the vent.

“It’s alright, MAX,” she called back to her robot companion. “False alarm.” She heard the little robot coming toward her position. She waited for MAX to catch up with her leaning on the wall as she saw the approaching light from the other direction. He was nearly to her position when suddenly her blood ran cold.

A pressure on her boot...a warm pressure. And whatever it was…it belonged to something very much alive.


End file.
